Graham Dugald Duncan(born 1959) is a South African

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and specialist

bulb In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

horticulturalist Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

at the

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden Kirstenbosch is an important botanical garden nestled at the eastern foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town. The garden is one of 10 National Botanical Gardens covering five of South Africa's six different biomes and administered by the South A ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, South Africa.

Life

Graham Duncan was born in 1959 and grew up in the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

region amongst its wild bulbous plants. He obtained his early education at the Cape Town Technikon with a National Diploma in horticulture, and joined the

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

in 1978, where he came under the influence of

Winsome Fanny Barker Winsome Fanny Barker (23 September 1907 – 27 December 1994) was a South African botanist and plant collector noted for her work as Curator building the collection at the herbarium of the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, as well as her re ...

(1907–1994), then

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the Compton Herbarium at Kirstenbosch and a ''

Lachenalia ''Lachenalia'' is a genus of bulbous perennial plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae, which are usually found in Namibia and South Africa. Most of them have a dormancy period, but new roots will always grow every year. ''Lach ...

'' specialist. He earned his

MSc MSC may refer to: Computers * Message Sequence Chart * Microelectronics Support Centre of UK Rutherford Appleton Laboratory * MIDI Show Control * MSC Malaysia (formerly known as Multimedia Super Corridor) * USB mass storage device class (USB MSC ...

(''

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

'') in Botany at the

University of KwaZulu-Natal The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is a university with five campuses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville. ...

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; Zulu: umGungundlovu) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its Zulu name umGungundlovu ...

in 2005.

Work

Graham Duncan is a specialist horticulturalist for

geophytes A storage organ is a part of a plant specifically modified for storage of energy (generally in the form of carbohydrates) or water. Storage organs often grow underground, where they are better protected from attack by herbivores. Plants that have ...

and

curates A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

the

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

South African

collection at Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden. These are displayed in the Kay Bergh Bulb House at the Kirstenbosch Conservatory. He is considered an authority on the cultivation, conservation, propagation and biology of bulbs of the Cape region, and the leading expert on the genus ''Lachenalia''. His research deals with the biology and taxonomy of Cape bulbs. Other than his work on ''Lachenalia'' he is known for his expertise on ''

Nerine ''Nerine'' (nerines, Guernsey lily, Jersey lily, spider lily) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family (biology), family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. They are bulbous perennial plant, perennials, some evergreen, asso ...

'', ''

Eucomis ''Eucomis'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family (biology), family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae, native to southern Africa. Most species of this genus are commonly referred to as pineapple flowers or pineapple lilies. They are bulb ...

'' and ''

Agapanthus ''Agapanthus'' is a genus of plants, the only one in the subfamily Agapanthoideae of the family Amaryllidaceae. The family is in the monocot order Asparagales. The name is derived from Greek: ἀγάπη (''agapē'' – "love"), ἄνθος (' ...

''. As well as identifying a number of South African plants, he has also bred

cultivars A cultivar is a type of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and when Plant propagation, propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and st ...

such as ''

Clivia miniata ''Clivia miniata'', the Natal lily or bush lily, is a species of flowering plant in the genus ''Clivia'' of the family Amaryllidaceae, native to woodland habitats in South Africa (Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal provinces) as well as i ...

'' 'Kirstenbosch Splendour', which illustrates the cover of the Kirstenbosch

centenary {{other uses, Centennial (disambiguation), Centenary (disambiguation) A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century, a period of 100 years. Notable events Notable centennial events at ...

book (2013). He is the author of numerous books, including several titles in the

Kirstenbosch Gardening Series Kirstenbosch is an important botanical garden nestled at the eastern foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town. The garden is one of 10 National Botanical Gardens covering five of South Africa's six different biomes and administered by the South Af ...

, scientific papers and popular articles on South African bulbous plants. He is also a plant collector and plant photographer (see

image An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...

) and his photographs illustrate his own books and have been published in ''The Smallest Kingdom: Plants and Plant Collectors at the Cape of Good Hope'' (2011).

Awards

In 1989 he was awarded the Recht Malan Prize for non-fiction (1989) from the Nasionale Boekhandel for his ''Bulbous plants of southern Africa'' and in 2001 he was the recipient of the

International Bulb Society The International Bulb Society was founded on May 31, 1933 and is an international society dedicated to informing the public about the science, cultivation, conservation and botany of geophytic plants, commonly known as bulbs. It began in 1933 a ...

Herbert Medal The Herbert Medal is awarded by the International Bulb Society to those whose achievements in advancing knowledge of ornamental bulbous plants is considered to be outstanding.Botanical authority In botanical nomenclature, author citation is the way of citing the person or group of people who validly published a botanical name, i.e. who first published the name while fulfilling the formal requirements as specified by the '' International Co ...

include many species of ''

'', together with . The

International Plant Names Index The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) describes itself as "a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes." Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species and genus. It inclu ...

lists 54 taxa named by him, predominantly species of ''Lachenalia''.

Selected publications

Books

* * *

Kirstenbosch Gardening Series

* * * * * *

Articles

* *

References

Bibliography

Books and monographs

* * * * * *

Articles and websites

* * * , at * * , at * , at * * * , in * * * *

Works by Graham Duncan

* * * * * * * * * * * * * , in * * * * * * * * * * * * *, in * , in

External links

Photograph of Duncan Graham photographing plants on location
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duncan, Graham University of KwaZulu-Natal alumni 20th-century South African botanists Botanists with author abbreviations 1959 births Living people 21st-century South African botanists